Noonan

Anyone who watches a show like L&O and thinks it either mirrors real life or is being used as cop propaganda is hilariously misinformed.

Count Dooku

Yeah, it's pretty much borne out after 8 years that the people working at LWTwJO are "hilariously misinformed."

cultshock

Oh yeah, they don't know what they're talking about, do they even do any research?

Eric F

It’s on TV, it has to be true.

Red Dog

Great posts, Count.

I admit I enjoyed the original L&O for pure entertainment value in the Jerry Orbach days. But while I respected their legal precedents cited, I never thought it was an accurate reflection of the police and prosecutors. They don't care about truth and justice. They care about arrests and convictions - as a bottom line.

And that CSI effect is so true - that show is so much worse to warping the minds of people.

Always thought SVU was total garbage and CI was really bad. Then we have the new Stabler show which is basically a cartoon.

Paff

Having had a day or two to mull all this over, maybe Oliver's point is that the L&O franchise purports to be more "realistic" in its depiction of police, when it obviously isn't. And sure, I know that, I watch it for entertainment value. Like if there's a noted guest star (not the before-they-were-famous appearances, like Samuel L. Jackson or Philip Seymour Hoffman) in a very small role early on, you already know they did the crime and will be prominent in both halves of the ep. But maybe a lot of Lionel Hutzes in the world watch L&O in a bar with the sound turned down and think they're qualified to try a case.

One thing I've thought about, is that Oliver only mentioned two shows for the most part: Dragnet and L&O. But there were definitely cop shows in between, hundreds of them. He didn't mention them, because people already know that California Highway Patrol officers do not spend their time in roller discos (like I sarcastically referred to earlier), or that vice cops in Miami don't tool around in jet boats wearing pastel suits. Cop shows in general are ridiculous, featuring car chases, shootouts (that no one ever gets shot in, except maybe the leg or shoulder), last second rescues, etc. You know, generally obvious escapist fare. Law and Order always does the "ripped from the headlines" cases, then throws in the disclaimer "even though this is similar to a real case, the details in this show were fictitious" for half a second after the credits.

And again, I want to emphasize that I'm not that familiar with SVU or the other shows in the franchise, just the "classic", so if those are more over the top and yet pretend to be realistic, I'm not aware of it. I guess I just got a little miffed at JO taking the wind out of the sails of a good Sunday Law and Order rerun marathon where they air some of my favorites, and a couple I haven't seen before (and also, I just saw one for the first time, where a high school kid got shot in a drug deal gone wrong, but then it turns out he was a snitch for a dirty narc so they tried the narc for manslaughter since he put the kid in the position to be killed. Realistic? Of course not. Entertaining? Hell yes!).

Count Dooku

Like I said before, I watched about 250 episodes of LO:SVU this year in about 6-7 months, so more than an episode a day. When you watch A LOT of a show in a concentrated period of time, you notice its tendencies, and Oliver's observations are correct from my point of view.

Cellar Door

Pretty good episode on bail reform this week (Oct. 30th episode). Those stories about lengthy prison stays (sometimes years) before even having a trial are infuriating.

Paff

Especially when they spend more time in jail awaiting trial than if they'd had the trial, were found guilty, and sentenced to the maximum. Isn't there some document somewhere that talks about a "speedy trial"?

Count Dooku

Meanwhile, if you are rich and (usually) white, you can essentially dictate the terms under which you will appear in court, turn over evidence, and submit to questioning --all while living free as a bird in the lap of luxury.


Another thing that affects this situation is lack of state funding for public defenders. Since these accused criminals typically rely on free legal aid, when there are a severe lack of public defenders available to provide that service, the trial dates get put off.
I heard an NPR story that Oregon had one-third of the public defender staff that it was supposed to have, but when the subject of increasing funding comes up, it gets connected to being soft on crime. And the general public does not care because having a free lawyer available to accused criminals is something they don't expect will ever impact them personally.

JTH182

But but but... Darren Bailey's commercials here in IL say cashless bail is the "Purge Law!" There's no way that's just rhetoric to scare the white suburbanites and southern Illinoisans, right?

JeffTheAlpaca

I assume he has a beef with Colbert if he goes on Fallon to plug the new season

Jay G.

John Oliver always does the rounds to all the late night shows to plug his show.

Here's all his other Fallon appearances:
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...r+jimmy+fallon

John Oliver was on Colbert about 2 months ago:

He was also on Amber Ruffin's show right before Christmas:

And on Late Night with Seth Meyers 4 months ago:

Gizmo

Back this Sunday!

Jay G.

John Oliver was on Colbert on Monday plugging the new season:

Jay G.

This weeks episode on HOAs was pretty good, but the real star was the alternate episode about the secret history of Chuck E Cheese.

https://www.lastsqueaktonight.com/

MrX

The Chuck E. Cheese episode was great.

Mickey Mouse coming out and dropping a "Where's Shelly?" again

slop101

Regarding Chuck-E Cheese...
When I was pre-teen (9 to 11, roughly 1981 to 1983), I fucking LOVED Chuk-E-Cheese!
It was a dark, dank place, and it was fun as fuck!
To me, at that time, the pizza was great (didn't have much else to compare it to), I loved playing the video-games (they were so much more advanced than my Atari 2600), along with the other non-videogames they had. And the animatronics just added a whole other level to the fun - I never sat and watched them, they were just cool to have in the background as me and my friends and cousins would run around having the time of our lives.
But again, it was distinctively dank, dark and very cavernous, and not at all what would pass for a kid's place these days.

Regarding HOAs...

I do like to fuck with our HOA - done it a few times in the almost 20 years I've lived here.

Granted, the HOA has gone through multiple ownership in that time, some good, some bad and some in-between, though it's always been "governed" by the neighborhood homeowners (again, some good, some not). Overall, we're actually lucky, as to what we pay a month and what we get (pool, parks, etc) is actually on the better end of things.

Anyway, as to fucking with them. A while ago, due to a drought, I had stopped watering my lawn, HOA send me an email saying that I need to fix my lawn - I sent them the State law that says when the governor declares a drought, there's fuck-all the HOA can do to enforce homeowners to water their lawn. They never responded. I also sent them a picture of my lawn next to the patch of grass along the sidewalk that they're responsible for, pointing out how their grass is in even worse shape, and that they should take care of their own shit before coming at me.

Election time... I put a Katie Porter for congress sign on my front lawn (she's a family friend), and HOA says I can't have political signs in front of my home. Again, I point out a State law that says during election season, I absolutely can have political signs on my property, and no governing body (HOA) can tell me not to. They promptly shut the fuck up about it!

Most recently, I reached out to them saying I'm putting in solar panels, and they're all, "please fill out the application, extensive proposal of construction, along with $ to go over the proposal, and wait for approval, blah blah blah. And I'm all, "you misunderstood me, I'm just telling you as a courtesy - I don't need your goddamn approval because both the city and state says I can put solar on my home without you interfering one bit. Again, stunned silence.

I guess it depends on the association, along with city and state, but If you know the laws, and hit them back with the actual statutes, you don't have to put up with a lot of their crap.

Paff

[HOA talk]My HOA payment is the only one I still use a traditional check for, and mail it in, even though they do take online payments. Want to know why? Because I want them to have to through the extra hassle of opening my envelope (maybe getting a paper cut), and making a trip to the bank to deposit my check. Hell, even if they just take a photo of my check, that's still one extra step they have to do, and I want to make them do it [/HOA talk]

Cellar Door

This was me exactly, same time period, EXCEPT that for me it was Showbiz Pizza Place (which later was converted to a Chuck E Cheese after the companies merged.) Loved it, especially the skee-ball, and trading hundreds of those paper tickets for a dinky little toy that lasted about 30 minutes of playing with.
I am so glad that I don't live under an HOA. Fortunately I live in a quaint, older neighborhood built before HOAs were common, and most everyone keeps their homes and yards in good condition on their own accord. In theory, I can see the value of an HOA, but in practice everyone I've ever heard talk about them did not have nice things to say about the way they were run.

joltman

I wonder if there's a reason the Chuck E Cheese segment isn't available to watch in HBO Max or on YouTube? Basically, there doesn't seem to be any legit way to watch it on Roku or anything like that.

Jay G.

Well, it was meant as a sort of joke, and they maybe don't want to detracts from the HOA episode. However, the "web exclusives" typically get posted to Youtube during the show's hiatuses, so maybe they'll post it next Sunday, since I'd think they'd be off this week for Easter.

I don't know if the "web exclusive" episodes get posted to HBO Max or not. My recollection is they only show up on Youtube.

Troy Stiffler

https://www.lastsqueaktonight.com/

brainee

Thankfully I don't live under a HOA. For good or bad, I like living in a neighborhood where the houses aren't cookie cutters of each other and my neighbors don't give me shit if I'm doing things with my property and house that they don't approve of. And I'm not getting fined for things like speeding by 1 mph, letting my yardwork go a little until I have time, or not having my doors painted the exactly correct shade of mayonnaise yellow.

One thing I was wondering. It sounds like for those that do, they're paying for things that are normally covered by taxes for me. So if you're in an HOA ... are your property and/or local taxes lower (since the government is doing less for you)?

cultshock

Yeah, I always thought that HOAs were bullshit and was glad they aren't really a thing here in Canada. After watching this episode I realized that they are worse than I thought. They can actually forclose on someone's house if fees or fines are in arrears? I really can't believe that so many freedom loving Americans put up with shit like this,